The Last Companion
by PourSomeElevenOnMe
Summary: The Doctor's companions had all gone. He was left to fiddle with the gadgets on his TARDIS console until an unexpected message hit his psychic paper. Coordinates. He follows them to a cafe—a cafe that's bigger on the inside. There, he finds her. Half-Time Lady—Laurie Palmer. Eleventh Doctor/OFC. Rated T to be safe.


It all started when the last of the Time Lords got a message, sent straight to his psychic paper. He'd been fiddling with a new set of knobs and gadgets the TARDIS installed when the message flew straight into his tweed jacket pocket, the blue glow catching his attention out of the corner of his eye. He immediately became confused—he never got a message on his psychic paper, and when he did, it was either A) River, or B) an absolutely end-of-time emergency that only he knew the solution to.

He couldn't tell which one this fell under.

_"DOCTOR—34, 9812, 90, 57/0"_

He knew coördinates when he saw them and the only idea that came to mind first was River. River would often send him coördinates—no actual message, just a place, time, and date. He usually found her causing mischief somewhere, beckoning him to join her, then he would often have to save the world in the end. So, he marched around the console and entered the coördinates then sent the TARDIS into oblivion, where she spun and swung and danced through time and space and energy until she landed with that beautiful sound. The Doctor patted the console with a grin on his face and left the TARDIS with the psychic paper in hand.

The year was 9812, a year he actually hadn't been to before, and his TARDIS had landed just outside a café with several different types of aliens and mutated humans flowing in and out. The most frequent kind seemed to be aliens that looked like humans, except the rainbow splotches down their skin. They seemed to be iridescent but he couldn't be sure under the dull, burning hot sunlight. He couldn't tell exactly what planet he was at, or even what galaxy, just by the look of the aliens or scenery. It looked like a revamped Earth, except the sky had been replaced with a sun burning hotter than the light it emitted through the atmosphere and a sky full of stars and galaxies.

His suspicion of the message coming from his River faded, rather quickly. If he hadn't been to a planet or galaxy, neither did River. Often they would invite the other when the found one, but only by telephone, and it was usually the Doctor who ran across the pesky, unnoticed planets.

He walked into the café and immediately exited, his eyes examining everything on and around the tiny café. He glanced inside once more and found a scream of confusion and freight building in his throat, but he contained it as he walked around the building, his determined eyes never faltering. He forced himself through the door and gulped when the mall-like café panned out before him, all the space and shops and people shoved into the tiny building like all the machinery and hang-out spots and rooms were shoved into his TARDIS.

Time Lord Science—it could only mean one thing.

He raised the psychic paper to his face again and looked at the message. Could it have been sent from another Time Lord? A Time Lady, perhaps? He almost scoffed at himself. He would know if another of his kind still existed. He would feel it. He would suddenly just...know. And here it was, the Time Lord trickery of the bigger-on-the-inside trick. Was this how all of his past companions felt when entering the TARDIS? He grimaced as he passed more shops with the same profile.

The mall-like café went on for ages, filled with humans and aliens and animals. Wonder coursed through his eyes as he passed them all, the TARDIS having translated every language into English, he could say hello back to them when they waved and spoke in their native tongue. His step faltered when he reached the exact place the message came from. It was full of people, flooding in and out every door the small shop had. It would be hard to tell who sent it from standing outside, but his fear of how all of this could be kept him from entering.

Another message hit his psychic paper, and either of his hearts raced.

_"COME INSIDE—FANCY A CUPPA?"_

He gulped down the ball of fear and fixed his bow tie before submerging into the sea of creatures. When he fought his way through to a clearing, he saw tables with candles and flowers like a restaurant. A very popular one, so it seems. It wasn't hard to find the source of the message after that, though he couldn't convince himself it was all real.

A Time Lady. She had to be. Who else? What else? Another message hit his paper.

_"THAT'S RIGHT, DOCTOR, A LITTLE MORE. I DON'T BITE."_

He gritted his teeth and forced himself to her table. He sat down across from her and avoided eye contact for the greatest amount of time available—unfortunately, that time was only limited to a fraction of a second. He looked up at her and stared. A human face—or a Time Lord face, if that's how you saw it. Long, brown locks in curls, blue eyes bordered with winged liner, rose lips, round nose, and a friendly smile.

"Doctor," She greeted, a true smile on her face. "It's nice to see—"

"Who are you? What do you want? _What _are you?" He interrupted, a grimace on his face. "You aren't real—can't be. All the Time Lords and Ladies died in the war. I'm the only one who survived. How did you escape? Were you born? Are there others? What—"

The Doctor was silenced with a sweet peck on his lips, leaving the smallest bit of red smudge behind. The Doctor's hands hit the table in alarm before she pulled away. The woman giggled and placed her tiny, soft hands over his rougher, larger ones and hushed him quietly.

"Too many questions, Doctor. One at a time. Let's start with who I am." She said quietly, though he could hear her perfectly over the loudness of the creatures chatting away around them. The Doctors hand flexed beneath hers but he made no effort to pull away. "My name is Laurie Palmer. Sometimes I go by The Wanderer."

"Wanderer? Are you a Time Lady?" He asked, leaning forward absent mindedly as he listened to her speak—another one of his kind _speak. _He suddenly adored the sound.

"No, not full-blooded," She answered, leaning back in her chair, her manicured fingers wrapping around the warm mug of tea. Suddenly the Doctor noticed the mug sitting steaming in front of him. He grasped it and felt its warmth. "I'm half. Perhaps that's why we never had a psychic connection. Maybe I simply don't have the ability of connecting with a full-blooded like that."

"Half? Which of your parents are full? How did you get away from the war?"

"My father was full. My mother was his companion. They fell madly in love, it was wonderful. But my father had to fight in the Time War. He banished my mother away to another parallel world. She had me, nine months later, like a normal mum. I was only eight when I found out of her knowledge and my abilities to travel time and space."

"How did you find me? I was floating away in some random galaxy." The Doctor questioned, his hands turning to grasp hers in his. He stared down at them with such emotion, such sadness and realization and love and loneliness. Too many emotions.

"I was in my TARDIS. I always have the scanner going and we just-so-happened to be within 100 years and 1,000 miles away from each other. As soon as my TARDIS recognized yours, I sent you the coördinates to this place and here we are." She explained briefly, a soft smile playing on her face when she saw the slight frown on his. He glanced up and met her eyes.

"I thought I was alone." He whispered, intertwining their hands together. "I thought...I thought I was going to die alone, adventure alone. I can't handle being alone, then this happens." The Doctor shook his head and sighed, disconnecting their hands. "I can't believe there's another. You're surreal. A dream. A beautiful, wonderful, magnificent dream."

"Ditto," She laughed, then stood, catching the Doctor off guard. "Well, enough with the heavy. I was never any good at that stuff. Do you fancy a trip to Barcelona—the planet? I hear they have wonderful biscuits." She grinned, holding her hand out, much like he did to his companions. The Doctor grinned and connected his hand with hers.

And then they were off, a Time Lord and Time Lady, for the first time in 1,000 years. Oh, the shenanigans that will get into.


End file.
